What’s on the Drawing Media poster
A 7-row table: Medium · Strength · Paper.
The medium, what it is good at, and the paper it wants.
- Graphite 2H-2B — Precise line, light value — Smooth
- Graphite 4B-8B — Dark mass, smudges — Light tooth
- Willow charcoal — Fast, broad, erasable — Toothed
- Compressed charcoal — Deep black, hard to lift — Toothed
- Conté crayon — Warm darks, holds an edge — Tinted, toothed
- Ink and nib — Committed line, no lifting — Smooth, sized
- Silverpoint — Fine, pale, permanent — Prepared ground
Tooth is the paper surface. Smooth paper will not hold charcoal, and heavily toothed paper will not take a fine ink line.
Questions about the Drawing Media poster
- What’s on the Drawing Media poster?
- A 7-row table: Medium · Strength · Paper. The medium, what it is good at, and the paper it wants. Graphite 2H-2B — Precise line, light value — Smooth; Graphite 4B-8B — Dark mass, smudges — Light tooth; Willow charcoal — Fast, broad, erasable — Toothed; Compressed charcoal — Deep black, hard to lift — Toothed; Conté crayon — Warm darks, holds an edge — Tinted, toothed; Ink and nib — Committed line, no lifting — Smooth, sized; Silverpoint — Fine, pale, permanent — Prepared ground. Tooth is the paper surface. Smooth paper will not hold charcoal, and heavily toothed paper will not take a fine ink line.
- Who is the Drawing Media poster for?
- Drawing Media belongs to the Art & Design section rather than to a school year, because design is not something one grade owns. Anyone learning drawing can pin it up — a beginner, a student mid-course, or someone revising years later.
- When should you use the Drawing Media poster?
- Use it when choosing a medium for a study instead of taking the nearest one. A wall chart earns its place by being glanceable from where the work is happening, so Drawing Media belongs on the wall where that design work actually happens, within glancing distance, rather than filed away.
- What other posters go with Drawing Media?
- Blocking In, Cast Shadows and Edge Quality sit alongside Drawing Media in the Art & Design section. Printed together they make a wall rather than a single sheet, which is how a reference set actually gets used.Blocking InCast ShadowsEdge Quality
- Is the Drawing Media poster free to download and print?
- Yes. Drawing Media downloads as a free PDF with no account, no email and no watermark, like everything else in the Art & Design section. Print as many copies as you like for a home, a classroom, a library or a tutoring group; reselling the file is the only thing the licence rules out.Read the licence
- What size does the Drawing Media poster print at?
- Drawing Media is a vector PDF laid out for US Letter, and prints on A4 with Fit to page — the same file, no separate download. Because every mark on it is drawn rather than photographed, it stays sharp enlarged to A3, A2 or A1 at a copy shop. Colour carries emphasis only, so a greyscale print of Drawing Media loses nothing.Printing guide
Related posters
Charts that sit alongside Drawing Media on the same wall.
Browse every Art & Design poster, or start from the full catalogue.